Online Shruti Box - If you can't get access to a shruti box or a tambura, now you can download your own audio file from this site. The files are in .wav format (can be played on Windows Media Player or Musicmatch, or any regular audio player). Set up your system to automatically repeat each 60-second file and you'll have the steady hum of the tambura emanating from your computer.

To choose a shruti, you should know your own pitch (women generally sing between kaTTai 4 and 6, and men sing at 0-2). The beginners' audio lessons are at shruti G or kaTTai 5, and those given on Shivkumar Kalyanaraman's Krithi Archive are at shruti C# or kaTTai 1.5. For each file, the Western note and the kaTTai or shruti level are given. Click on a shruti to download (Please download to your computer and save rather than clicking on the file each time).

The first is the old set, followed by a 1 minute shruti set at 440Hz, followed by a long 8 minute file (about 40MB). Please save on your computer. Thanks to Samos Alixopoulos!